One suspect in horse slaughter free on bail; another undergoes mental exam

Sandra Chereb

Friday, Jan. 15, 1999 | 11:51 a.m.

VIRGINIA CITY, Nev. -- Free on bail and declaring his innocence, the first of three suspects arrested in the slaughter of wild horses was being arraigned today on a list of charges including "maiming or killing" another's animal.

Anthony Merlino, 20, Reno, posted a $60,000 bond Thursday and was released from the Washoe County jail.

He was scheduled to be arraigned in Storey County this afternoon on charges of grand theft, grand larceny and maiming, poisoning or killing another person's animal.

"Mr. Merlino maintains his innocence," defense lawyer Scott Freeman told The Associated Press after meeting with the suspect on Thursday. "Everybody is so quick to judge this young man. That's what we have courts for."

Merlino now lives with his parents in the Reno area, Freeman said.

Former neighbors at an apartment Merlino rented with friends in 1997 have described him as an over-enthusiastic hunter who blasted birds in the yard with a shotgun, gutted a deer on his living room carpet and bragged about his marksmanship.

"Although it is clichDe, it always is true - you're supposed to be innocent until proven guilty," Freeman said. "The Washoe County sheriff's office, the newspapers and some of the neighbors seem to think otherwise."

Facing the same charges in the deaths of the 34 free-roaming mustangs are Scott Brendle, 21, and Darien Brock, 20, high school friends of Merlino's who became U.S. Marines based in California.

Brock, who was stationed at Camp Pendleton in San Diego, was transferred to a mental health facility after he mentioned suicide Wednesday night, but later returned to the base's jail.

Interviewed in custody, he told KGTV in San Diego that he watched when one of his friends shot a single horse, but maintained he knew nothing about the others.

Brock, was scheduled for an extradition hearing today, told the station he knew what they were doing was wrong, but added, "It's just a horse."

Brendle has indicated he will agree to return to Nevada to face charges. He was transferred on Wednesday from the Marine Corps Air-Ground Combat Center in Twentynine Palms east of Los Angeles to a nearby jail pending his extradition to Nevada, said the jail watch commander, Sgt. Gerry Tessler.

"We had a great sense of relief that the arrest-part is over. Now the real chore is ahead - the prosecution," said Lydia Hammack, president of the Virginia Range Wildlife Protection Agency.

"The arrest happened so fast because all the different agencies put everything they had into it," she said.

Local law enforcement teamed up with state livestock officials, the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, Naval Investigative Services and the U.S. Marine Corps to track the suspects.

Hammack's group helped raise the $35,000 reward for information leading to arrest and conviction of the people responsible, and passed on tips to the sheriff's "Secret Witness" program, which will decide who gets the reward.

Storey County District Attorney Janet Hess said several of the horses apparently "suffered for a long time" before they died or were destroyed. "This is an egregious situation," she said.

Later, at a news conference she called at the county courthouse, she told reporters she would release no new information outside of court.

"I strongly believe that the DA's office should not be having discussions going before a jury," Hess said Thursday. "This case is going to be tried in a courtroom and not in the press."